The Ferocious Forest Fire Mystery Book

I am so so excited to see this book is still in print, as my tattered childhood copy is currently held together with silver duct tape.

This is a children's book about a bear who emerges from hibernation to find that his beloved woods have been razed and a huge factory has been build right on top of his den. Disoriented and probably scared shitless, he wanders around until he is confronted by an evil looking factory manager who scolds him for being unshaven and out of uniform, calls him a no good lazy bones, and forces him to dress himself, shave his face, and punch in on the time clock. When the bear finally realizes what is happening to him and tries to explain to his bosses that he is in fact a bear, they tell him bears don't work in factories, he works in a factory, and therefore cannot be a bear. When he is taken to discuss the issue with the company president, a bear skin rug adorns the fancy office floor.

I won't ruin the rest of it for you. I'll just say, Reading Rainbow style, if you want to know what happens next, you'll have to read this book!

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2012 Update:

I ordered a copy from Amazon to give myself for Christmas and found the translation has been altered in two horrible ways. First, what was "lazybones" in my 1980s version is now the infinitely less pleasing "slacker." Also, THE LAST SENTENCE HAS BEEN ELIMINATED! The last page used to read, "And then he remembered." But no longer! Now the end feels so much more disturbing and death-like. Not to mention confusing. My mother used to shamelessly alter my children's books to be less sexist and I'd encourage all owners of this book to add in the last line by hand.